John Lewis - What Do You Think of Their Customer Service?

[AnotherRandomUsernom]

My elderly father bought a Beko washing machine from them over a year ago. It leaked from the soap dispenser so he had it replaced. The new one also leaked and he has had 4 engineers calling round advising him to use specific soap, only to use about 2 programmes and to use a cleaning program once a month. Despite all this, the machine still leaks.
I’m worried he is going to slip on the floor. He uses a walker and life is difficult enough already. I’m worried about him catching covid from all these engineers calling over. He spent all day today on the phone trying to get through to JL then was told to get a code from Becko but he didn’t manage to get through to Becko today. He has to try all over again tomorrow. I don’t think he’ll have any luck getting the code as we’ve been through this process before. Becko refused to give us the number and JL refused to help. Surely it is his consumer right to have a refund. What is going on with customer care and consumer rights these days? I think it’s shocking that an elderly and vulnerable man should be treated like this by John Lewis.

They used to be my go to for appliances due to the aftercare.

Bought a laptop and monitor from them last year . They arrived damaged. Took a long time to get them picked up, refunded etc. multiple calls and long holds for something simple. Pick-ups never happened when scheduled etc. Refund took ages and came in dribs and drabs.

Customer service was the thing that marked them out. The quality of their own brand items has nosedived too. Now they are just relatively expensive with poor quality merchandise and poor customer service. They are eroding a loyal customer base with that, and they won’t win new customers amongst you get people because they just don’t represent good people halothane or value anymore.

I think they are in terminal decline and have at most ten years left in them before they disappear.

George Asda have my vote for cotton bed sheets and have surprisingly good customer services.

I agree, Asda customer service is great. They deal with issues on the spot. Straightforward. I can’t ever imagine they’d tell you to go home, spend a few hours on the phone trying to organise a replacement (don’t care how you manage in the meantime!) then, when you finally have your replacement, to be patient while 5 engineers traipse through your house - wearing masks and covid free if you’re in luck - over the coming year. Follow their ridiculous advice, swallow their criticism and accusations, because, of course, you are a time waster and entirely to blame.

Oh, and good luck when you’re finally allowed a replacement, because you’ll have to organise it yourself, if you can get through to the manufacturer and get them to agree to give you the sacred ‘uplift number’, because they’re impossible to get through to and they’ve never heard of the consumer rights act .

The other thing I’d say is that if you are going to buy from John Lewis, make sure you’re on a good phone contact because if there’s a problem you’ll be using a heck of a lot of time and minutes on the phone to them.

I’m so sorry your dad is going through this random, it’s made me so sad for him. I hope you get the issues sorted soon and that you feel sharing has gone some way to rectifying the damage JL are doing.

Asda saved my mums 80th lockdown birthday after M&S messed up and computer said no. They went above and beyond and were bloody fantastic, like something from the 50s.

If this post helps a few people to avoid running in problems with JL then great.
That’s another vote of confidence for Asda then. I’m glad you managed to save your mums 80th. At least we still have other options.

Generally pretty good, but just this morning we had a text to say delivery of a big item was going to be in 20 minutes - 2 hours before the slot we’d been given! And we don’t live at the property - it’s a 25 minute drive away.

Dh just made it, but it was annoying, since we needed to be there during the slot anyway, so now have to go twice.

Have to say I was impressed with their helpline after buying a laptop some years ago. There was something weird about it - just wasn’t working properly.

I could feel the bloke on the other end valiantly suppressing his mounting irritation at this daft old bag (as he evidently thought) who couldn’t follow simple instructions. Even though I told him I’d been using computers for many years - it wasn’t me!

Eventually it turned out that for some unfathomable reason, the left and right clicks had been transposed! Even he had never come across such a thing before.

Even if they refer to manufacturer for manufacturer's fault, they can offer you a goodwill credit to a new machine, that happened with a pan we had. Sometimes, pursuing a fix when it's just a bad machine is worthless and see if JL will offer a credit for all the trouble. Your poor dad.

Yes Jack Frost, I did assure my Dad that I would push for a good will gesture. It did raise a bit of laughter I have to say . If I could get a few vouchers for him maybe, it might at least make him feel like his customer satisfaction actually matters.

I've just remembered how things USED to be! We had an indesit washer from JL that broke after a couple of years. Local engineer said it wasn't economical to repair but he was prepared to put in writing the part that broke should have lasted longer than 2 years and there was no way we could have damaged it.
Spoke to JL who offered me a discount off a new machine. Which was already discounted but they still honoured both.

That’s great quality service as we recognise it isn’t it? The kind of service that makes you want to support their endeavours by consciously choosing to shop there again. Consciously giving them a wide birth now!

Op my dad had severe mobility issues and at that age extra physical work and the danger of a fall is unacceptable.

A washing machine should make life easier not harder.

I would escalate and all at the same time.

John Lewis, and cc in bekko ceo.

And mock up a headline "John Lewis and bekko put elderly father at slip risk and tell him only two functions can be used on the dodgy new washing machine brought to make his life easier.

Mr xxxx a disabled pensioner has to balance on his mobility walker using a grab stick to mop up water leaking from his new machine.
He has been told its his fault for using the wrong soap. In addition he has been told he can only use two functions on his new bekko machine supplied via John Lewis.
Mr xx said he is not only terrified of falling but that he is scared of catching covid from the endless trail of engineers sent around to solve the issue.
He said they think they have solved it by telling me I am using the wrong soap and to not use all the functions.

His daughter said "I Can't believe this is service from from what used to be the gold standard of customer service. The washing machine was supposed to make it dad's life better but I'm terrified now he will slip and fall on the leak and we know how fatal falls in the elderly can be. We also have the additional stress of him being unnecessarily exposed to covid.. "

Send to as many top brass emails as you can, tweet...

And if no response in a day.. Email the news papers problems pages. Money saving expert website etc.

Don't hang around waiting for a resolution at the lower levels now.

Used to be great, but not now. Had a problem with TV breaking down under guarantee, and it was horrendous dealing with them. Sorted out in the end, but it was a struggle.

Two years running they simply cancelled my order for Christmas presents and flowers, both times a few days before Christmas. No explanation, no apology, just an email confirming MY cancellation of the order. Wrote in to register a complaint about how I hadn’t cancelled the order and received no explanation or anything really. Had used them for over a decade. They list themselves a loyal customer as I take my money elsewhere now

January, this just about sums things up. I’m lost for words, you’ve said everything!

All I can add is that I think this is just one example of how the lack of legislation in place to protect vulnerable adults as consumers can affect them.

I will take your advice. It’s all brilliant!

Mamak, that’s terrible. I really don’t think they know what on earth they are doing any more.

I'm dealing with them at the moment for what should be a simple return and i'm astonished by how awful their customer service is. They have always been my go-to for electrical, household stuff etc but after this experience I would gladly pay double to avoid shopping with them again.

Starmachine, quote your consumer rights and if they ask you to contact the manufacturer for an uplift number, insist they put you in their queue to request an uplift number. They can do this themselves.
I hope you’re dealing with the technical support team and not customer services. You can also ask them to put you through to the escalation team in Exeter although if they answer their phones it will be down to a miracle.

This makes very sad and surprising reading. I've always found them great in the past but have no recent experience. We bought an oven before Christmas but went with AO as they offered a better deal. This thread will make me think twice about making John Lewis my first port of call for big purchases in future. Interestingly we have their credit card and haven't been impressed with the customer service with that but I know that is outsourced.

I think this is part of the problem Morning Maeve. Everything is outsourced. You only realise when there is a problem. JL have offloaded you to the supplier where you’re really not treated like a valued customer with rights. You’re not John Lewis’s problem and the manufacturer isn’t interested either.

I’m not surprised the credit card is outsourced - they are a retailer, not a financial services company, and the credit card is just a way to trade on their brand values, and encourage people to shop at JL to get reward points.

The problem is they are now outsourcing basic customer care for their core business, so if you purchase faulty goods from them they push you to deal with the manufacturer, not John Lewis.

You then have to ask how they are adding value compared to online retailers.

I agree re the financial outsourcing that I wouldn't expect them to be running it directly but I still expected as the credit card carried their name they'd care how it treated its customers but apparently not.

It used to be great. Now not so much. Any issues are passed off to the manufacturer. I’m sitting here looking at a fridge JL delivered to me 10 years ago with a cracked crisper drawer. I told them the same day about this issue and they pretended they would order a replacement. Then when I chased it, they said it was nothing to do with them. So I still have the cracked bloody drawer.

JL also delivered me a washing machine about 5yrs ago. (Bosch). Make so badly that the first load of clothes came out covered in grated plastic (the drum was rubbing the housing). Call them up - they don’t give much of a shit, say a Bosch engineer will come in 10 days. I spoke to a local applicants repairer and he said I can legally return it to them within 14(?) days. So I wrote them an email saying it needs returning and that it was waiting for them in my garage. Got a different washer off the local man.

Never buy appliances from JL now.

IMO Your only option OP is to buy a new machine from somewhere else and trash the beko. Sounds appallingly wasteful and expensive but how else are you going to ensure he doesn’t slip and fall.